"part of me prefers just thinking Links a dumbass. if i wanted to summon the apocalypse and destroy Hyrule id built a little fence around myself and theres not a god damn thing he can do about it" - Naomi

Welcome to the Fourth Day, where everything's made up and the points don't matter.

My name is David, Dade, my friends call me. My world is similar to your world, we have countries and we have the people who run the countries. We have armies; and because we have armies, we also have wars. We have schools and teachers, hospitals and doctors. We have a lot of things that are the same.

But your world is more advanced in some ways too. You have motor vehicles. You have things made out of thousands of tons metal that defy the laws of gravity and fly. You have bombs that can wipe out entire continents.

Of course, we have some things that you would ever dream of. We have a certain energy within us that can help us defy the laws of gravity and enable us to fight from a distance without the use of weapons, not that we don't use weapons sometimes. I must admit our transportation leaves something to be desired when compared to yours, but I figure you can have too much of a good thing. And you can keep your bombs that you'll never use. Our explosives are easier to control and deadly accurate.

You have names for all your countries. We don't, but then, the only countries in my world worth remembering are the Seven Great Nations. The countries of Fire, Grass, Lightning, Water, Air, Ghost and Psychic. Of course there are other countries scattered around, but those are the most influential ranging in just that order. I come from the capital of the Fire Country, Carnelian City. It's probably the biggest city in the world and my family has lived there since the First War when the Seven Nations were created.

Now I ask you to forget about your world, just for a few hours, because this isn't a story about your world, it's a story about mine.

Chapter One:

I came to a stop, panting heavily and doubled over, my hands on my knees.

"Next time, you can be the diversion," I said to my teammate, Chris. Chris looked at me, his dark eyes glittering with the laughter he was trying to suppress.

I stood up and smiled. Apart from a few scratches I had survived the mission unharmed. Our captain Kairo looked over at us.

"Well done, guys," he said before adding, "and Lena."

Lena was the other member of our team and also the only female. She was always quick to point out that the term 'guys' was a male pronoun and that she resented it, although recently she had become more lenient.

"Time to report in?" she asked. "Or are we going to do another quick one before we clock off?"

Kairo looked up at the sky. The sun was low and he estimated it to be only an hour or so before sundown.

"I think that's enough for today. I'll hand in the mission reports, you can go home. We'll meet at six tomorrow and get some training in before we start. I'm still a bit concerned about the teamwork."

"That's probably because we're meant to be a team and you don't do any of the work," Chris replied smiling sardonically at Kairo.

Chris and Kairo were very alike. Not just in looks, that was pretty much a given for them because they were siblings. Their similarities went deeper than that. The only conceivable difference was that Chris was highly punctual and Kairo; well, Kairo usually decided to turn up when he felt like. They were both incredibly smart, both passing at the top of their years from the Academy. They would both fiercely defend their friends, even if they were outnumbered. And most importantly, at least in my eyes, they were my friends. Chris, more than Kairo but the point stands. I would defend either of them with my own life if the situation called for it.

"Whatever guys," Lena said as she turned to walk away. "I'll let you get all the testosterone fuelled hatred out now and I'll see you all tomorrow."Lena was different to Chris and Kairo. She was a jerk, more so to me and Chris but Kairo had been on the receiving end of her rants more than once. That's not to say she didn't care about us. She had put herself in a compromising position more than once for us, she just had a more honest approach to doing things. She wouldn't hesitate to let you know if she didn't like you but would happily admit if she was wrong and learn from the experience. And she could quite easily beat any of us in a fight. She found loopholes in rules that made her able to fight unfairly, but still honestly.

And then there's me. Most people would tell you that I'm lazy. I'm not; I just don't really like doing things without thinking well ahead first. After all, if the prize is inadequate, why go through the effort of trying to win? Why not save your energy for something a little more worthwhile? I'm not lazy, I'm a strategist. And there's been more than one time when my strategies have helped us all get out of trouble.

We are part of the Bellatorius, the front line of defence in war and the ones people come to when they need something done. Our missions can be anything from general guard duty to escorting people to reconnaissance. I'm a Concinnus. A 'Con'. So is Chris. We are the middle rank. There's one rank below and rank above. Lena is a Tiro, the rank below and Kairo is a Grandis, the rank above. There is only one group with a higher power than a Grandis and they are known as The Collective. They are the enforcers and the feared. And one person governs us all. He is the one with absolute authority over what we do and where we go. He is the Juvencia. He is responsible for the city and the security of the country. He is the one who assigns missions and he is the one we report to. If the Collective are the elite, he is the Grand master. He is known only as Sard

"Well, I'm going," Chris said. "After you've given the reports can you tell mum I've gone to the restaurant for dinner?" he asked his older brother.

Kairo smiled. It was a smile that spoke volumes to anyone who knew him. "Sorry, little brother, I have a date."

Chris rolled his eyes and walked away. "Have fun," I said to Kairo before following Chris' lead and leaving. When I caught up to Chris, he was letting his long dark hair out of its band. Shaking it out, he looked at me and asked, "Do you really think he has a date?"

Chris and I were 17. We'd been teammates for over a year now and for the entire time Kairo had been out commanding officer. He was 3 years older than us and had risen quickly through the ranks. I remembered Chris telling me one day during a lesson when we were younger that the Collective had wanted Kairo but he had refused. Lena, who was a year older than us, had told us that it was because he didn't want to face the missions that the Collective were made to do. And I had to admit after talking to my father about it and learning what the Collective did, I wasn't too sure I would want to join either. Of course, you don't decide if you join the Collective. You can only decide not to.

"I don’t know," I replied. "It makes sense not to tell us while Lena's around, but it's Kairo. He could just be saying it to wind you up."

Chris looked at me and raised his eyebrows.

"Or not," I said, quickly. I'd been Chris' friend since we were five years old and had met at the Academy's entrance ceremony. Our fathers were apparently old drinking buddies and had struck up a conversation leaving their kids to themselves. Chris and I got talking and eventually we became best friends. I could only assume our tutors had hoped that Chris' hardworking nature would rub off on me but their hopes were in vain. I passed near the bottom of the class in the written exam but in my practical tests I was top. Even Chris couldn't quite understand it. The combination result left me dead in the middle of the passing group. Chris was top, and Lena was dead last.

When we were placed in teams, it was only natural that Chris, Lena and I be put together. It was almost a tradition to have the first and last passing student in a group together and placed with one of the more central graduates. Of course this was not an ideal situation for us. Chris and I did not get along with Lena and she didn't try to hide the fact that she disliked us, too, Although Chris said he thought this was because we were both smarter, younger and generally more talented than she was. She soon proved us wrong.

Three hours later, all the other teams had met their new trainers and had gone to train and we were sat in a deserted classroom waiting for ours to turn up.

He walked through the door with a grin on his face and simply said, "Sorry I'm late, guys. A black cat crossed my path so I had to go the long way."By this point, we'd already figured Kairo was out instructor; he was notorious for being late for almost everything that didn't involve food. But then he saw Lena and the usual smiling face of Kairo dropped. Not even Chris knew why.

A few days later we found out that Lena and Kairo had been dating but when they were placed in the team together, they had to call it off. Lena had responded to this by being unreasonably annoying and refusing to do missions she thought were below her. Of course Chris then pointed out that having just graduated, there were no missions too easy, just those we weren't qualified to do.

I ran a hand through my messy red-brown hair and sighed. "Let's just go get something to eat, before there are no tables left," I said as Chris and I made our way to one of the city's most popular eateries.

The hours with Chris passed quickly. We ate at our favourite restaurant then headed to one of the more deserted training grounds to spar. As usual, I kicked his ass up until he decided to fight fire with water, literally. At around 9pm when I was soaked and shivering despite the warm summer air, we called it a draw and quit for the night. Sore and aching, I made my way home.

Home to me was on the edge of a forest that ran from our city into the wilderness to the west. It was still part of the Fire country but the steppes were a place where outlaws ran free. In the past, young girls would run away from home and traverse the deep forest. If they got to the steppes, most were never heard of again. Our countries don’t have kings, but false ones show up every now and then, claiming land as their own and invoking long forgotten laws that are outright barbaric when looked at with a modern eye. The king of the Steppes is one such man. Although he generally keeps his people to themselves, there are tales about him told to scare little children. But I digress. My family’s job is to stop the outlaws coming into the city and to escort anyone trying to leave the city via the forest back home and to the Juvencia. If there is one law that must be upheld, it’s that you do not abandon your country. Trying to leave the city by the forest is paramount to renouncing your ties to your city. We can’t stop everyone, but we try. That’s our duty.

I walked through the front door and yawned as I took off my flak jacket. I didn’t really need it for most missions inside the village but wearing it showed my rank, if nothing else. Yeah, I was secretly very happy with being a Con. I couldn’t let Lena know that though so my official reason was “you never know when a mission will turn bad”.

“Dade?” My mom’s voice echoed through from the kitchen. “Is that you?”

“Yeah mom,” I called back as I hung my flak jacket up and started pulling off my boots. “I’m home.”

Mom came to greet me, she was shorter than I was; shorter than most people really. Apparently it had given her an edge on missions but she became a housewife when she fell pregnant with me. She could still be scary though, especially if Dad had been out drinking or if I hadn’t told her about something that went wrong on a mission.

“Welcome home,” she said, hugging me around the waist.

I put my hand on top of her head. “Thanks mom,” I replied. “Something smells good.”

She looked back to the kitchen. “I made dinner for you and your father, are you hungry?”

I’d eaten earlier but training with Chris had worked my appetite back up. “’M always hungry,” I told her.

She laughed and led the way into the kitchen where I sat at the table and she busied around, chattering about her day and preparing my meal. I tuned her out for a while, thinking about what Kairo would have us do in training the next day. There was no question about what he’d have Chris and Lena work on. They both almost exclusively used weapons; he was trying to break them out of it, though it was proving difficult for him.

“Dade, did you hear me?”

“Sorry, mom, what did you say?”

“I said, ‘if your father isn’t home by the time you’ve finished eating, can you go look for him?’”

“Oh, right, of course I will.” He’s probably out drinking again.

A few minutes later, she set a bowl of chicken stew in front of me along with several bread rolls. I ate with gusto, I hadn’t realised how hungry I’d gotten after training. Within several minutes, I’d eaten everything in the bowl and two of the rolls.

“I’m heading out now, mom,” I said after placing the bowl in the sink and rinsing my hands off.

“You know where he is?”

I supressed a snort of laughter. “I have an idea.” I kissed the top of her head and headed back to the front door to put on my boots and head to the local bar where my father spent most of the time he wasn’t working.

The bar was filled with life. The lights outside gleamed in the night. Tables set outside for patrons to enjoy the summer air were filled with people, talking and laughing. Inside was less crowded but no less full of atmosphere. People were gathered around tables talking and laughing; others at the bar were drinking and gossiping with the bartenders and deep in a darkened corner came the sound of a familiar laugh.

I felt my eyebrow quirk up at the sound and followed it to the back of the bar, where the lights from the main room barely penetrated the gloom.

“What are you doing here?” I asked as I slipped into a seat in the booth.

“Dade!” Kairo exclaimed. “Have a drink! No wait, you’re too young aren’t you? Have a soda!”

“No thanks, I came for him,” I jabbed my thumb in my father’s direction.

“Now, kid, there’s no need to talk about your old man like that,” my dad said. His words came out fluidly, he didn’t sound drunk at all, but the pile of glasses stacked by his side betrayed how much he’d had to drink already.

“We were talking about you, Dade,” Kairo sang. “You~ And Chris~ And Lena~. I love Lena.”

“Kairo.” A third voice came from next to Kairo and he shut up immediately.

“I didn’t notice you there,” I said. Chris and Kairo’s father sat next to him, drinking slowly from a bottle.

“I noticed. How have you been doing, Dade?”

“Pretty good, thanks for asking.”

“Dade’s the greatest,” Kairo said again in his sing song voice. “The greatest strategist, the greatest Con, the greatest student. He’s just the greatest.”

“Thanks, Kai,” I said. “Dad, come on, mom’s waiting.”

“Yeah, yeah, I got it.” He downed the rest of his drink and stood up heavily from the table. “Ata,” he said, addressing Kairo’s father. “About what we talked about…”

“I’ll deal with it, just make sure everything’s right on your end.”

Dad nodded and put his hand on my shoulder, guiding me out of the bar and back out on to the street.

“What was that about?” I asked when we were alone.

“Never mind, it was nothing.”

“Didn’t sound like nothing,” I muttered.

“Leave it, Dade.”

“You know I’m not a kid any more, right. You can trust me with this, I can help.”

“David I said leave it.”

I closed my eyes for a few seconds and sighed. “Fine.”

That night, I sat in the window seat in my room watching the clouds pass over the sky and stars. I should have been sleeping; I knew I was going to suffer for it in the morning when I got up, but the clouds, especially when back dropped by the night’s sky captivated me. They always had. It helped me clear my head when I needed to and relax when I had a chance. My father’s snores brought me out of my reverie and I decided that I could keep watching the sky from my bed. I was just about to leave the window when a flash of movement caught my eye on the edge of the forest. Sighing, I pulled on a pair of shoes I kept for occasions such as this and jumped out of the window. I landed with a small thump on the grass below my window. I took off at a sprint, whoever it was, hadn’t been moving too fast, I was sure I could head them off.

I got to the edge of the forest quickly and was surprised by who I saw.

“Lena?”

“Dade, what you doing up?” she said as she turned to look at me.

“I could ask you the same thing. Where were you going?”

She sighed. “The training clearing.”

I nodded. Chris and I had a clearing in the forest we used to train in when we were younger. We hadn’t used it for a few years now though, not since we graduated from the academy. We’d taken Lena there once to show her where we trained before compared to where we would train now.

“Master David.”

A voice called out from behind me and when I turned I was surprised to see a distant relative, some cousin or uncle, running towards me. He was fat and his gait was ungainly. It was probably why he’d taken so long to get here after spotting an intruder on our lands. I’d have to talk with my father about fixing the rotations.

“Everything’s fine,” I said. “A friend wanted to use the clearing.”

“You’re certain?”

“Yeah, it’s all fine. I’ll walk her to the edge of the grounds.”

With a nod and a stilted bow, the fat man waddled back to his station.

“Master David?” Lena questioned with a grin.

“Shut up,” I said, giving her a playful shove as she broke into laughter that shattered the calm of the night. “Come on, you know no one’s allowed on our property at night, I’ll walk you home.”

“I’m a big girl, Dade; I don’t need you to walk me home.” He sentence was interspersed with giggles.

“Yeah well I figured walking you home will give me an excuse to ask you what the hell you’re doing on my land at 1am.”

She sighed, the grin dropping from her face. “It’s just… I needed somewhere I could practice without anyone seeing me.” She started walking towards the road that led into the city proper. Naturally, I followed. “Kai’s always acting like I’m the weakest link in this team. I’m not smart like Chris and I can’t use elements like you. I wanted to practice with some weapons. Maybe if I had a speciality, he wouldn’t be so hard on me all the time.”

“Kai’s not hard on you because you don’t have a speciality, Lena. He’s hard on you because he cares about you.” I gave her a quick once over before noticing something and speaking again. “Where are your weapons?” I asked. She wasn’t wearing her normal weapons pouch, only one we used to carry scrolls in.

She reached into her pouch and pulled out a scroll. “Mom taught me a summoning technique, I’ve been practicing it but I haven’t tried it out yet. Well, not when I’m not 5 foot away from what I’m trying to summon.”

A shy smile graced her face for a moment before it was gone again. “I’m working on it.”

“Why don’t you ask Chris to help you out?” I asked studying her profile as we walked. I’d always known she was pretty but with the moonlight shining off her short blonde hair, bleaching the little colour it had and making it seem pure white, she looked truly beautiful.

She danced ahead of me and spun around to face me, walking backwards through the long grass. “Because if Chris knows, then Kai will find out.”

“So why don’t you concentrate on trapping. You’re brilliant at that, even if you don’t let Kairo know about it.”

“Trapping’s great, Dade, but what use is it in real battle? I need something that can be useful in fights, not for catching rabbits.”

“Well, we know you can use at least one element, why not let me help you out with that?”

I really was grasping at straws here. Lena’s fire element usage was a disaster waiting to happen.

“I’ve been working on it. I’m not as bad as I was but I’m not good enough for you to teach me what you know. You think I haven’t thought about asking you for help?”

“Obviously not if you’re willing to sneak onto my land at this time of night,” I retorted with a grin.

“You’re a jerk,” she said, spinning back around to face forward.

We reached the road quickly and in silence after that. I was still wondering what I could do to help Lena and she, no doubt, was thinking about what she could do to impress Kairo.

“See you in the morning, Dade,” she said as she skipped off towards her home.

“See ya,” I called after her. “Oh, and Lena.”

She turned, looking at me quizzically with her green-blue eyes. “What?”

“Stay off my land.”

She let out a laugh and turned with her hand held in the air by way of a goodbye.

What do you think??

_________________We can stand in the light as much as we want, hoping that it will purify and burn away the mistakes we've made. But the truth is, it's only when we stand in the light that we cast our darkest shadow.

♫ You think you'll win, but soon you'll see, you may beat some, but you can't beat me ♫